Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Book Quotes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

This is a fun topic as I love book quotes. I didn’t choose these in any order. I just picked the first 10 favorite quotes I’d saved on Goodreads. I’m sure if I looked longer I could have found some I like even more, but the truth is that it’s incredibly difficult to pick favorite quotes. I just read too many books with too many quotable lines. These quotes made me laugh, think, or even cheer. No matter the feelings they evoke, these quotes have touched me deeply.

1.) “With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact you kept it does not.” – Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants

2.) “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

3.) “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” ― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

4.) “I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot. ” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

5.) “Whenever you’re unsure of yourself, whenever you’re in doubt, ask yourself three questions. What do you believe in? What do you hope for? But most important, ask yourself, what do you love?” His arm was around her. “And when you answer, Tania, you will know who you are. And more important—if you ask this question of the people around you, you will know who they are, too.” ― Paullina Simons, The Summer Garden

6.) “Sometimes when someone says something so devastatingly perfect, there isn’t a need for a response. The words said it all.” ― Jennifer L. Armentrout, Opal

7.) “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

8.) “People die, I think, but your relationship with them doesn’t. It continues and is ever-changing.” ― Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun

9.) “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“The man who fears losing has already lost.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“A man who won’t listen can’t hear.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

10.) “It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

Honorable Mention

Because I couldn’t stop looking long after I completed this post, here are five extra quotable quotes.

“I didn’t know what was worse: to have your shot and screw it up, or to never have had a shot in the first place.”
― Danielle Paige, Dorothy Must Die

“You’ll never be able to find yourself if you’re lost in someone else.”
― Colleen Hoover, November 9

“Well. That’s helpful. We’ll put an APB out on the Gingerbread Man. I’m not hopeful it’ll do us much good, though. Word on the street is you can’t catch him.”
― Joe Hill, NOS4A2

“No one is born evil, just like no one is born alone. They become that way, through choice and circumstance.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Glass Sword

“People enter our lives for a season, a reason, or a lifetime.”
― Matthew Quick, Every Exquisite Thing